Takeaway
People with functional seizures (FS) are typically less interoceptive than healthy controls, and interoceptive deficits are associated with increased dissociation and seizure frequency.
Why this matters
Epilepsy is commonly misdiagnosed; FS which resemble epileptic seizures but are not caused by ictal epileptiform activity may account for up to 20% of epilepsy diagnoses in the USA.
Dissociation is an important aspect of FS and it is therefore predicted that interoception – a sensation and perception of the body ‘from within’ – may be impaired in people with FS.